Jack's Second Chance
by Animaltalker
Summary: A chance encounter in a bar with a former girlfriend after Serena's firing gives Jack a second chance with her.


Jack McCoy was feeling guilty. So he sat at the bar nursing a scotch. He'd purposely avoided being around One Hogan Place today, when he knew Serena would be moving her things out of her office. He didn't want to talk with her. He knew he should, he just didn't feel up to it yet. Arthur was right to fire her, but Jack felt badly for her. Truth was, he'd come to like Serena. He thought of her almost like a daughter. God didn't that make him feel old. There was a time he thought of his attractive female assistants kid sisters as or maybe possible paramours.

That thought made him recall Clair. He remembered that first day when she'd brought up his reputation with his female assistants. He'd told her, "I don't foresee a problem." He wondered what she thought he meant by the remark. She might have thought he was being arrogant, implying that he was sure she'd want to have a relationship with him, or she might have been offended thinking he meant he didn't find her attractive. What he'd really meant was at the time he was passionately involved with someone else, someone else whom he thought was going to be the second Mrs. McCoy, the volatile defense attorney Vanessa Galiano. Trouble was Vanessa was always jumping to conclusions, and once she did, she never would listen to anyone else's explanation of how things really were. So when she got it in her head that Jack was having an affair with his assistant Clair, it was over between him and Vanessa. He decided if he was going to be accused of the crime, he might as well be guilty of it, and that's when he finally began an affair with Clair. Something he would never regret, except perhaps the pain of losing her.

Vanessa had had an incredibly trying day. She had a client that she was sure was innocent, which was actually not always the case, but the evidence against her was although, all circumstantial, strong, and to top everything off she was up against one of the DA's best assistants Tracey Kibre. Add to that Judge William Wright who was known to make asinine rulings and she felt ready to explode. That's why she was stopping in at the bar for a drink before heading out to her home on Long Island. When she saw Jack McCoy sitting at the bar nursing a scotch, she stopped and took in a sharp breath. Crossing paths with him again last year in the Camacho case had stirred up a lot of emotions, and left a lot of unanswered questions. Well, she always liked confrontations.

"Hello Jack," she said as she sat next to him.

"Well hello, Vanessa, think of the Devil!" he said baiting her even though he wasn't sure he was up for the encounter.

"Oh and why were you thinking of me? Or should I be flattered and think you do that a lot?" She found it easy getting into the spirit of teasing him.

"You really want to know the answer?" he asked raising his eyebrows at her.

"You're going to count it as a win, if I say yes, aren't you?" she asked with a smile.

He gave her his most charming grin. "Of course I am."

"OK so give, why were you thinking about me?"

"Well, I've just lost my most recent female assistant and I realized that although Arthur was right to fire her," Jack started to explain.

"What, Serena Southerlyn was fired, I thought she was a damned fine attorney," Vanessa said.

"She is, but she's not a prosecutor. I wish for her sake I'd realized that sooner," Jack said.

"Oh, don't tell me, not another one you're in love with," Vanessa said bitterly.

"No, not another one," Jack said as he got off his bar stool and swallowed the last of his scotch.

"You don't even know how stupid you're being!" Jack yelled at her, as he took out his money clip and pulled off some bills to cover his tab and walked out of the bar.

"Don't you walk away from me!" Vanessa screamed at him, as she followed him out of the bar to where he was hailing a cab.

"Fine! You want to have this discussion. We'll have this discussion, at my place! NOW!" With that he opened the cab's door, shoved her in the back seat and got in next to her, and then gave the cabbie his address. They rode in silence to his apartment, glowering at one another the entire way.

"OK we're here, so you want to tell me what I'm being so stupid about?" she asked.

"First of all, I'm not in love with Serena, she's young enough to be my daughter and besides that she's not even remotely attracted to me," Jack started out.

"Jack, all women find older powerful men attractive," Vanessa argued.

"Unless they're not attracted to men at all," Jack countered.

"She's a lesbian?" Vanessa asked in shock.

"Yes, and you were wrong about Clair and me too," Jack added, as he began stalking Vanessa.

"You weren't having an affair with her?" she asked meekly as Jack took her in his arms.

"No, not until you moved out. Then I started seeing her just because I was hurt and angry with you," he said in between kissing her mouth and her cheek and biting her neck.

She pushed him down on his couch and straddled his thighs; leaning forward she took his tie off and started unbuttoning his shirt, putting kisses on his chest. He was running his hand under her skirt when his doorbell rang, insistently as though someone was leaning on it.

"Ignore it, they'll go away," she said in a breathy voice.

"I can't, with Serena fired, I'm catching major cases, and it might be the cops. Though why they wouldn't just call, is beyond me," Jack said with regret and started levering himself out from beneath Vanessa. He gave her a long hard kiss before he headed to the door.

He opened the door just a bit leaving the chain on.

"Jack, can I talk with you for a bit?" Serena asked.

"Uh, Serena, it's not a very good time," he answered.

Suddenly, Serena realized that although it was fairly early in the evening, Jack's hair was mussed and his shirt was unbuttoned.

"Oh God. I should have called first I'm sorry Jack," she mumbled an embarrassed apology.

"No it's OK Serena, really and I really do want to talk to you. Look how about we have lunch tomorrow. Call me, we'll set a time and place, OK?" Jack reassured her. She quickly agreed and beat a hasty retreat.

When he turned around Vanessa looked ready to bolt.

"Uh uh, you are not getting away from me again. You get your sweet little ass into that bedroom, now!" he ordered.

She smiled, "I always liked it when you got aggressive," she answered.

"Good, I've gotten more aggressive with age and if you don't start moving, I'm going to pick you up and carry you!" he mock threatened.

She laughed, turned and jogged toward his bed.


End file.
